"And this is the best you can do..." Pearl said with a grimace for the overflowing dumpsters.

"Well, the boss is not exactly enthralled with us, sooo..." Jessie said with a sigh. "This is what we've got."

The group approached the door, where they were met by a man with wrinkled clothes and a perpetual frown, who waved them on by after a brief check of their member's liscences.

"So this is totally inhabited by Team Rocket members?" Pearl asked as they climbed the stairs to thier second story apartment.

"Completely," was Jessie's brief reply as she fit the key in the lock and pushed the door open. "Welcome to Apartment 205."

"Second story paradise," James added with a grin as he followed Pearl in and shut the door. Pearl stared. The place itself was very small, with various items, from clothes to books to empty containers scattered here and there, yet the place had a very comfortable and familiar look to it.

"Ooh, can I give the tour, Jessie?" James suddenly squealed out of the blue. Pearl stifled a giggle. He looked about ready to jump up and down out of sheer excitement.

"If it makes you happy, James..." Jessie said tiredly, plopping down on the faded-looking blue couch to tug at her boots. James grabbed Pearl's hand, which made her blink - it made Jessie blink too - then began leading her the few steps it required to go from room to room and explain each one.

"This is the kitchen... there's usually food in it... and over here is the bedroom, we only have one, so... and this is the bathroom, the only day the hot water usually works is Tuesday, and that's only if you're lucky, you've already seen the living room, but THIS is our window with a spectacular view of the building across the street!" He drew a deep breath then finally, and bowed slightly. Pearl clapped a few times for his benefit.

"Wonderful! You should be a tour guide or something."

"Yeah," he laughed, "if being a tour guide meant I could make a lot of money showing about two square feet of space to a bunch of people, I'd be all set." He sat down next to Jessie and began pulling off his own boots, adding them to the pile on the floor. What seemed to be a significant glance passed between the two of them; but exactly what significance it held was a mystery to Pearl. Feeling a touch on her leg, she looked down to see Meowth clinging to it, with Eevee standing close by.

"Poil, you're stayin' here awhile, ain't ya..."

She smiled down at his earnest expression. "Well, yes, at least until I figure out what I'm going to be doing."

"Figure... figure... that reminds me, I better figure out how much all that lost equipment's gonna cost the boss to replace," Jessie groaned, slapping a hand to her forehead. James nodded as though commiserating, but kept glancing at the kitchen door, thoughts obviously elsewhere. Sifting through the tangle of things on the floor produced a pencil and piece of paper, which Jessie then carried over to a small table near the kitchen, with everyone else following and taking a seat around her. Well, at least Pearl did. Eevee curled in a ball at Pearl's feet, and Meowth purred away happily on her lap. James excused himself to the kitchen, receiving a pointed look from Jessie before he went. Jessie scribbled down numbers at an amazing rate while Pearl simply scratched behind Meowth's ears and looked around the room. The variety of things laying about was astonishing. A stack of books nearly reached the ceiling in one corner, while another contained what appeared to be nothing but socks. The lacy black bra hanging over a lamp was what made her really blink though. Jessie must not be too... modest.

"Who ate all the leftover stir fry from last night?" James' voice wailed from the kitchen.

"You did," Jessie yelled back, not skipping a beat in her writing. "Add that, and..." she began mumbling to herself. Then yelling: "James, where's the calculator?"

A pause followed, then the kitchen door swung open as James stuck his head out. "Ummm... Sonya borrowed it."

"What?! That woman tried to come down here and seduce you again?"

"Seduce me? Since when did--"

"Don't give me that! The woman tries to feel you up 'accidentally' and continuously asks if you think the 'Lovely Kiss' TM can be taught to humans, and YOU think she's not trying to seduce you!"

"Well, I don't notice it."

Jessie tapped her pencil on the table in thought. "Maybe if I told her about your obsession for wearing women's clothes, she'd change her mind about you."

"I do not--"

"Yeah, I'll tell her that you like wearing women's clothes and that you're such a wimp that you're scared of a tiny Eevee, that should do it."

"You can't--"

"And didn't I TELL you not to let her in here anyway?" Without appearing to have moved, Jessie had somehow stood up and was now glaring murderously at James, fists firmly planted on her hips.

"I didn't let her in... she just CAME in... and she wanted to borrow--"

"And the door wasn't LOCKED?"

To say that James was by now as white as a Seel would be an understatement. Pearl was quite sure that Jessie was about to stab him with the pencil any minute. Perhaps it would be wise to call the hospital beforehand.

"I... I'm sorry," was all James stuttered, however, before disappearing from sight with a crash that sounded as though he'd fainted. Jessie pursed her lips and sat down irritably, pencil poised as though to write more, but instead just sighing and staring at the paper. Pearl wondered if these kind of things happened often. Maybe she'd ask Meowth about it later.

Several minutes of silence passed before James crept back out from the kitchen and sat in the only remaining chair at the table, which happened to be directly across from Jessie. She gave him a meaningful frown but pushed her paper away without making any further comment on that matter.

"We need to talk. There's a lot of explaining to do around here." The look Jessie gave Pearl clearly indicated that she would be the one expected to do most of the explaining.

"So we probably can't be expected to get much sleep tonight?" Pearl countered with a rueful grin.

"It depends on how long-winded you make your answers. Now, question number one. How... in the world... did you manage to come to our rescue tonight?"

Pearl nodded. The interrogation was underway. All the room really needed now was the chair and a bright light.

"I was in the area, of course, on the outskirts of a large mansion. I heard a vehicle pulling up and hid myself in the bushes, where I watched everything you did. When I was sure you needed help, I used a prototype smoke bomb I'd brought with me from storage to cause a little commotion. And well... you know the rest. Call it blind luck I was there when I was. But let me ask YOU something before your next question. A jewelry heist? What happened to the Pikachu thing? Add that to you 'living' here and, well... the whole thing seems a little... funny."

Pearl studied her teammates' reactions carefully. Jessie appeared calm for the most part, the tapping of her fingernail on the table as she looked at Pearl the only outward indication of being upset. James was apparently intent on staring at the ceiling, yet squirmed rather uncomfortably in his chair from time to time. And Meowth just stared up at Pearl with unblinking eyes.

"I suppose you should know," Jessie finally began. "This isn't something we talk about around here much, but to put it simply, we're on probation. Until we can accomplish something, for a change. And if we don't... you know the rest."

"We failed again tonight..." Meowth murmured from Pearl's lap. She patted his head softly. "Let's not talk about it anymore... now that I know." She shifted her attention to Jessie. "Next question?"

"Why are you here of all places, away from that 'Lair' place or whatever you insist on calling it?"

That question had been the obvious next choice. Pearl took a deep breath and steadied herself; this would be the most difficult part to say, and if she said it wrong...

"Answers."

Everyone blinked at this one word reply. "Answers... to what?" Jessie prodded.

Pearl continued a little more slowly. "My parents... were killed 'in the line of duty' while in the 'service' of Team Rocket. But you see, 'in the line of duty' doesn't tell me what HAPPENED to them. I..." Be careful. Stay under control. "I have to know for sure. So I'm out to find that information. There's something that doesn't seem right about it..."

The three other members sat looking at her soberly, communicating sympathy through their silence. "But don't you..." James finally spoke up, darting a quick, nervous glance at Jessie, apparently to see if she disapproved of him saying anything. Her expression didn't change, but he continued in a rush. "Don't you have files in the Lair that say..."

"Yes and no. There are files, but all I can get from them is 'in the line of duty'. I'm starting to really hate that phrase... anyway, I get the feeling there are files purposely not sent to be taken care of by me, and..." This was the most risky part. If she could get their help... "And that's why I'm going to find those files. By breaking into HQ."

It was difficult to say whether James' or Meowth's jaw dropped further. Jessie's eyebrows nearly rose to her hairline. "But that's... a member of Team Rocket, breaking into Team Rocket headquarters... it's... it's..."

"Crazy?" Pearl offered. "I know. But it means a lot to me, and... I would like your help."

A silence fell as each one sifted through his or her own thoughts. "She did help us, after all," James said quietly, looking at Jessie. She studied him for a moment and nodded slowly.

"She did! And we should help her too!" Meowth cried, jumping up to the table top.

"It's not like we should just rush into this," Jessie snapped at the cat Pokémon. "But..." She looked James in the eyes again, as if basing her decision on what she saw there. "She helped us a lot... and I hate owing debts like that. So, tomorrow night?"

A relieved smile spread over Pearl's face. She had known they would help. Or at least just hoped really hard that they would. "Tomorrow's fine. We can plan in the morning."

"Then let's get some sleep." Everyone agreed with Jessie's suggestion wholeheartedly. Pearl fully expected this part of the evening to be somewhat of an adventure, and so was prepared for anything.

James approached her first, with a curious expression on his face, but appearing to be sleepy above anything else. "I didn't see you bring anything with you," was his simple comment. Fishing around in her skirt pocket, Pearl pulled out a rectangular metal box about four inches long and two inches wide, with only a small red button marring it's otherwise smooth surface.

"This is all I need," she told him in a conspiratorial whisper.

"That... is..." he repeated quizzically, staring at it harder. Then his eyes narrowed as he looked back at Pearl as though he'd just figured something out. "You're not teasing me again, are you?"

She laughed. "Not this time. Watch." She placed the box on the floor and pushed the button; the box immediately expanded to about the size of a normal suitcase, the top opening to reveal it's contents.

"I 'borrowed' this space compressing device from Research and Development," Pearl explained, watching James blink bloodshot eyes in amazement. "Comes in quite handy, as you can see."

"I see." He leaned in closer as if about to share a dark secret. "You don't mind sleeping in a room all together, do you?"

"No... why?"

"You see... Jessie likes for us all to sleep in the same room... to be safe."

Pearl really had no idea why that would be safer, but nodded, pretending to understand perfectly. Understanding truly came later, after Jessie had explained to her quietly that they all slept in the same room because James had a terrible fear of sleeping in a room alone. Not smiling was difficult, but manageable until Meowth told her that Jessie and James couldn't sleep in a room without each other. No doubt they were wondering why she looked so amused now.

Getting ready for bed held little difficulty, as everyone was largely too tired to argue. Pearl couldn't help smiling again at the close proximity of a couple of the sleeping bags sprawled on the floor of the bedroom. It wasn't until she had settled into her own blankets with an already asleep Eevee and Meowth snuggled close by that she realized Jessie and James weren't even IN the room.

Managing to get up without awakening the sleeping Pokémon, she crawled to the door where she could see into the living room through the crack the door had been left open. She could see Jessie and James too, standing facing each other. Guilt nearly caused Pearl to go back to bed, but curiosity overcame it. She wanted to know exactly how close the two actually were. James was saying something now.

"...know that I don't care about her..."

"I know... I didn't mean to blow up at you, but... I was just really stressed from what happened tonight."

James nodded, shifting from foot to foot almost nervously. "I understand."

"If Pearl hadn't been there, we... we came so close to..." Jessie didn't appear to be actually crying, but she did abruptly step forward and clutch James tightly, pressing her face into his chest. Hugging her back, he reached a hand up to stroke her hair gently.

"I know... but it's alright," he told her in a voice that sounded more gently reassuring than Pearl had ever heard him sound before. Another attack of guilt this time did send her crawling back to her bed, where she lay thinking. She'd been wrong to assume that Jessie wasn't weak in some small way. And the two of them were obviously closer than she'd imagined.

Her thoughts drifted into images, images of her parents and life before now. The last that came to her before she fell into a dreamless sleep was that of a small boy, collapsed and crying by her feet.

Chapter Three
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